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Long-Lost Childhood Friends Separated During WWII Reunited by Chance 60 Years Later

A pair of childhood friends separated during WWII were reunited after finding themselves lying side by side in a hospital ward 60 years later. Best friends Peter Butcher and Donald Gooding, both now aged 86, first met as teenagers and became firm friends.

But they eventually lost contact when Peter volunteered as a flight engineer for the RAF aged 18, while Don later joined the armoured corps. Both tried several times to trace each other over the years, but their efforts were in vain, until an extraordinary chance encounter in hospital reunited them over 60 years later.